With the recent and unfortunate surge of the delta variant, it’s clear that judges and lawyers will need to adapt to new ways of trying cases for the foreseeable future in order to keep all trial participants safe and healthy. However, it is also important to continue to refine these procedures so as to minimize the challenges inherent in trying cases during these unprecedented times.

Last year, buoyed by a then-decreasing number of new COVID-19 cases, the Southern District of New York, like other federal courthouses around the country, slowly started to come back online after a lengthy pause in what is ordinarily a vibrant and vital docket. Since the start of the pandemic, the court has reportedly spent $1 million to reconfigure a handful of courtrooms and establish precautionary policies to resume the important work of the court—including jury trials. Despite these efforts, the court has not been immune to disruption stemming from the virus—earlier this year, a juror in a bank fraud case tested positive for the virus, prompting her and another juror’s dismissal and their replacement by alternates.

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